A little information about Home Start.

Home-Start's support is free, confidential and non-judgemental. In fact 25% of families refer themselves to Home-Start, which speaks for itself.

Home-Start helps to increase the confidence and independance of families by;

• Visiting families in their own homes to offer support, friendship and practical advice.
• Reassuring parents that their childcare problems are not unusual or unique.
• Encouraging parents' strengths and emotional well-being for the ultimate benifit of their children.
• Trying to get the fun back into family life.

Home-Start Volunteers, who have parenting experience themselves, can offer;

• Precious time for listening and talking
• Help with the children
• A break for parents
• Practical help and reassurance
• A change to meet other parents in the same boat
• Support to use local services and resources

Parents as for Home-Start's help for all sorts of reasons;

• They may feel isolated in their community, have no family nearby and be struggling to make friends
• They may be finding it hard to cope because of their own or a child's physical or mental illness
• They may have been hit hard by the death of a loved one
• They may be really struggling with the emotional and physical demands of having twins or triplets - perhaps born into an already large family

Home-Starts quality is maintained across the county with all Home-Start schemes working to National Standards.

Home-Starts Mission

Home-Start offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children in local communities throughout the UK and with British Forces in Germany and Cyprus.

Home-Start offers a unique service. We recruit and train volunteers who are usually parents themselves to visit families with at least one child under five, at home, and offer them informal, friendly and confident support.

Home-Starts Approach

Home-Start schemes are rooted in the communities they serve. They are managed locally, but supported by the national organisation: this offers direction, training, information and guidance and ensures consistant and quality support for parents and children wherever they are.

Home-Start has a proven, lasting, positive impact on the development of children and the health and welfare of the family.